Advice from people who know more about money than me...

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Do you have an investment that will return a higher % than your student loan is costing? If so, do that. If not, pay off your loans.

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sound idea, but also remember should the worse happen to you, most students loan can't be discharged in bankruptcy

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most students loan can't be discharged in bankruptcy

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you are correct...

Section 523(a)(8) of the US Bankruptcy Code, at 11 U.S.C., excepts from discharge debts for "an educational benefit overpayment or loan made, insured, or guaranteed by a governmental unit, or made under any program funded in whole or in part by a governmental unit or nonprofit institution; or an obligation to repay funds received as an educational benefit, scholarship, or stipend; or any other educational loan that is a qualified education loan, as defined in section 221(d)(1) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, incurred by a debtor who is an individual" unless "excepting such debt from discharge under this paragraph would impose an undue hardship on the debtor and the debtor's dependents".

For the purpose of this paragraph, the definition of of a qualifying education loan includes loans made solely to pay the higher education expenses of an eligible student, where the student is either the debtor, the spouse of the debtor, or the dependent of the debtor. In addition, the loans must be for study at a school that is eligible to participate in Title IV programs and where the student is enrolled at least half time. Loans that don't meet this definition, such as credit card debt, are still dischargeable even if they were used to pay for higher education expenses.

Thus FFELP and FDSLP loans, and education loans funded or guaranteed by private nonprofit organizations, are automatically nondischargeable in a bankruptcy proceeding. The only cases in which they can be discharged through bankruptcy are:

if the borrower files an undue hardship petition
and then it is up to the judge to decide whether the loan can actually be discharged. (The Higher Education Amendments of 1998 repealed the provision that allowed for the discharge of education loans that had been in repayment for 7 years. This affects all bankruptcy proceedings initiated after October 7, 1998, regardless of whether they involve loans incurred before that date.)

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The simple answer is this: Do you have an investment that will return a higher % than your student loan is costing? If so, do that. If not, pay off your loans.

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I disagree with this whole-heartedly.....pay off the debt and begin building wealth as soon as possible.

Cool, thanks for the info everyone. I guess I will stick to plan A. and pay everything off as quickly as possible. Yay for cheap shitty apartments to help keep the bills low.

If you have say $50k in student loans, it's going to take you a while to get it paid off. I'd rather get in a house and start building equity while at the same time write off the interest on the house as well as the loans. Say it takes 3-4 yrs to pay off the loans and then another yr or so to save up enough for a downpayment on a house. If the housing market is in better shape at that time, you will have to come up with a larger downpayment and probably pay more than you would have 4 yrs earlier. I'm just playing devils advocate.

No one ever wants to pass up on golden opportunities...but this isnt once in a lifetime.
The only thing you know right now is that you have 30k in student loan debt. You dont know if the housing market will go up or down in the future.
5% up or down in the next 2 years isnt going to make or break you in the long term.(home values)

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If I were you I would look into consolidation. If you can do this and lower your intrest rate and your monthly payment I would begin saving for a home.

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I don't know a whole lot about this process...would this be something I would talk to Sallie Mae about, or my own personal bank or what?

If you buy a house now, you will not be upside down 4 yrs from now. Now is a greeat time to buy a house. I agree with Da Hammer. I actually did the same thing as him when I graduated 10 yrs ago. Back then consolidation rates were very low. I believe I am paying something around 4% and at the time, I could not have gone to a bank and gotten a loan for 4% so figured I'd just pay on the student loans while I build equity in a home.

Yep. Still paying. I owed $80k. Got it down to about $15k now.